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One Parramatta is a joint winner in the non-government organisation category alongside Lakemba Neighbourhood Centre Project at Canterbury City Community Centre, and is also the overall winner of the 2013 awards taking out the Jim Samios Memorial Award. The awards were presented by NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell.

The Building Inclusive Communities Awards recognise and showcase individuals and groups in New South Wales whose work promotes harmony and understanding of others, and makes a significant contribution in helping to build a diverse and tolerant Australia.

Naturally our team is incredibly honoured and excited to win these two awards! One Parramatta is a unique and ambitious project to reduce racism and has proven results. Due to this recognition of our work, we hope that more businesses and councils come on board and work with us to promote the prevention of racism in Australia.

Remi Luxford, Delphine Vuagnoux and Monty Noble – some of the key people from the One Parramatta project – are presented the Jim Samios Memoral Award by NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell. Photographer: Effy Alexakis.

Last week we spoke with Al Jazeera English about our One Parramatta project as part of their story on tackling racism in Western Sydney. The video below demonstrates how one Australian school tackles racism:

All Together Now is proud to welcome Bruce as a new ambassador in its fight to erasing racism in Australia. Racism happens regularly in sport in general and in football in particular – in Europe, FIFA has taken serious actions to try to prevent it from happening.

Born in Washington D.C. (US), Bruce moved to Sydney when he was three years old. His father, a renowned Professor at the University of Western Sydney, was born in Ivory Coast and his mother in Togo. Coming from a multilingual family and being a rising star in the soccer world, Bruce decided to support All Together Now to take a stand against racism.

“Racism is an issue that I am very passionate about. It’s important for myself to speak out about racism and try to educate people on the immeasurable benefits diversity and multiculturalism bring to our society.”

Bruce has represented the Australian national team (Socceroos) on nine occasions playing in Asian Cup and World Cup qualifiers. He’s also played abroad for clubs in Turkey and China. He currently plays in the A-League for Adelaide United F.C. and has played in three AFC Champions League campaigns with the club.

“Whether it be in the workplace, the community, one’s family or just amongst friends, I hope to bring more awareness to All Together Now and hopefully together, we can all make a difference and have a positive impact on society by eradicating racism.”

The One Parramatta project is an original pilot dedicated to addressing interpersonal racism in Parramatta.

An initial grant of $50,000 from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship made this idea of erasing racism in Parramatta a reality. From this seed funding, All Together Now managed to quadruple this amount by garnering over $250,000 of project value along the way by leveraging business, volunteer and community support.

Parramatta is one of the most multicultural places in Australia, with 51% of the population born overseas. But it is also a place where 31% have been called names or insulted due to their cultural background or race. Based on the study led by Challenging Racism from the UWS, it appears that young adults are both primary perpetrators and victims of racism in the Parramatta area.

The goals of One Parramatta project was:

to encourage people to reflect on their own behavior towards people of different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds;

to develop the feeling of belonging to the same community;

to provide people with information about how to speak up when they witness racism in their community.

to ultimately help in erasing racism in Parramatta.

Over the course of this one-year project, All Together Now spoke to +250 people, created seven films of one-minute length, and shared their stories at Parramatta local cinema and on social media. More than 50,000 people saw one of the episodes. The project evaluation found that:

79% of survey respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they better understand racism after watching one of the One Parramatta films.

88% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they are more likely to be welcoming of other cultures as a result of watching one the One Parramatta films

Several people acknowledged that they realized that they have the right to fight racism and to stand up.

“People do change when they are pushed to reflect on their past behavior.”

But the One Parramatta project is just a start: a small drop in an ocean of ideas and projects that All Together Now would like to develop. You can contribute to help see other projects become real by making a donation.

All Together Now aims to prevent racism by promoting racial equality through education. We are Australia's only national charity dedicated to preventing all forms of racism in Australia.

ABN: 74 144 510 556

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PEOPLE REVIEWS

H

aving experienced the negative effects of racism before, I found great value in aligning myself with an organization that has its prevention as a top priority.

Andy Minh Trieu

SBS Pop Asia,

T

here is no place for racism in Australian football or the broader community and that is something I’m really passionate about.

Bruce Djite

Adelaide United Striker,

H

aving experienced the negative effects of racism before I found great value in aligning myself with an organization that has its prevention as a top priority. Through promoting and participating in All Together Now initiatives I have found the conversation of racism has spread through my networks. My friends that Identify with the issue are now more open to speak out about it.